


The Definition of Normal

by Plane_Lord



Category: Iron Man (Movies), Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: Awesome Pepper Potts, F/M, Insecure Tony, POV Pepper Potts, Pepper Potts Feels, Tony Being Tony, Tony Feels, Tony Stark Has A Heart, Tony-centric
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-08-08
Updated: 2018-08-08
Packaged: 2019-06-23 18:12:10
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 694
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15612054
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Plane_Lord/pseuds/Plane_Lord
Summary: Pepper Pott's isn't sure exactly when she became Tony Stark's barometer for what's normal. She thinks it must have happened sometime around the second Christmas as his Personal Assistant.





	The Definition of Normal

**Author's Note:**

> So, this little story is inspired by a post I saw on Tmblr. I plan to add more, but wanted to get this first part out - it is Pepperony Week, after all.
> 
>  
> 
> Also, I could really use a beta... so if you're available, send me a note, please.

Even before Pepper Potts became Tony Stark’s Personal Assistant, she knew he wasn’t exactly ‘normal’. How could he be? He was an only child of an eccentric genius billionaire. He had grown up the in the glare of the spotlight…and become an eccentric genius billionaire — aka, the Stark Legacy. He’d only ever known what it was like to have money, own fast cars, designer and bespoke couture, the finest food and liquor. It was a well known fact, that pretty much anything (or anyone) he could possibly want was at his beck and call. In short, Tony Stark lived a protected, privileged, and sheltered life most people could only dream about.

He’d not even gone to school like a ‘normal’ person. Tony Stark had gone to an elite boarding school, and then graduated from the world’s top engineering school (with multiple degrees); at a time when most kids his age were worrying about how they were going to pass Driver’s Ed. He’d never gone to prom, never played high school sports, never gone to a Homecoming dance… he never done any of things that most Americans considered a right of passage because when he’d been in “high school” he was eleven. So, yeah, ‘normal’ wasn’t exactly in Tony Stark’s purview.

Pepper had always known he was a bit eccentric and wild, even before she started working for him. She had read the gossip magazines and their scandalous headlines, seen the entertainment news. Not that she was ever a consumer of such bunk, but she’d thumbed through a People magazine on occasion.

One such article she specifically remembers was in Vanity Fair, which, okay, she did subscribe to and had no shame because they wrote some great articles, dammit. It was titled, “Stark Contrast — a week in the life of America’s youngest Fortune 500 CEO,” and it had been a less than glowing profile. By the reporter’s estimation Tony had slept for exactly four hours in six days, travelled to Asia and back for a party, invented two new weapons prototypes for Stark Industries (resulting in multiple patents), skipped five ‘important’ meetings, bedded seven women and two men, consumed gallons of ridiculously expensive alcohol, and snorted copious amounts of cocaine, followed by a cornucopia of nondescript pills. It was rumored that the reporter had to take a week to recover. It was also the last time a journalist was ever allowed unfettered access to Tony Stark, CEO.

She isn’t sure exactly when she became Tony’s barometer for what’s normal. She thinks it must have happened sometime around her second Christmas working for him. Tony had never had a personal assistant for more than a couple months. Certainly, not one he listened to, and trusted, more than Pepper.

He was aware that he stressed her out, and while it didn’t change his behavior, he did try to show his appreciation. She had come home, after another exhausting fourteen hour day, to an apartment full of shoe boxes. Not just any shoes, but every women’s style of Gucci, Christian Louboutin, Jimmy Choo, and Miu Miu in the 2001 spring/summer collection. In addition, each style was in two different sizes. She couldn’t even see her sofa there were so many boxes. Pepper had called him immediately and chewed him out for a good ten minutes on the extravagance of such a gift, breaking and entering, and establishing personal/professional boundaries.

_“But you like shoes! I know you do, you wear them all the time,” he had said. “I just wanted to do something nice!”_

_She sighed in exasperation, “Tony… I appreciate the thought, but this is not normal or appropriate! I live in a small two bedroom condo, I can’t even find my couch!”_

She had had to get a hotel room, which he paid for, until she could arrange someone to return the shoes. A few days after the shoe incident, he sent her an email instructing Pepper to pick her own Christmas and birthday presents, “Whatever you want, no price limit.” And while it maybe wasn’t the most thoughtful arrangement, it saved them both quite a few potential headaches over the next few years.


End file.
